Re: Aspects of Vista/7/8/10 that should NOT be ported to React
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2018 12:31 pm
One feature that I deeply dislike in Windows in general from 95 upward is the inability of a window to hold focus. Users that have never known another windowing system are probably unaware that there is another, better approach. When I click on a window in something like Motif or Dec windows I give that window focus, it is a manual selection on the part of the user that gives security to the user knowing that anything he types into that window stays in that window.
In the example of a password window, the visually obfuscated text is typed into a input field on a form that has focus and when the password is completed the user hits return or presses a button and the password is accepted. NOT in the case of windows. The user can be merrily typing his password looking down at the keyboard and the o/s can pop up another window that takes focus away from the user and which takes the currently typed input as text for it to handle or display depending upon what it is doing, compromising the user's password, and making a mockery of security on that system. It does not have to be a pop-up window, it can merely be an application that is taking a long time to start. I have known systems that initiate a lot of apps on startup taking focus away multiple times from a password entry attempt. This is SO important in this day and age where every tool/site asks you for a password.
Windows has the idea of pop-ups to tell a user what is happening, it is rather useless when that pop up or other app takes focus and you find half of what you've typed has gone nowhere. You may think this is trivial but in the security world this is a BIG DEAL. Being able to pop up another window and steal a users' password input? Great for the thief but from the security expert's perspective Windows is rubbish.
There should be a choice that protects the user window selected from being superceded by any pop-up. On superior systems that honoured the users' window selection there exists an alternative, a notification window where such pop-ups could be captured or the output diverted.
I'd love ReactOS to do certain things better than Windows, this is one that I do not expect to make beta or live but I'd like it to lodge in the consciousness of the ReactOS cloud as one of those potential improvements of ReactOS over Windows that could make ReactOS more acceptable in the real world.
In the example of a password window, the visually obfuscated text is typed into a input field on a form that has focus and when the password is completed the user hits return or presses a button and the password is accepted. NOT in the case of windows. The user can be merrily typing his password looking down at the keyboard and the o/s can pop up another window that takes focus away from the user and which takes the currently typed input as text for it to handle or display depending upon what it is doing, compromising the user's password, and making a mockery of security on that system. It does not have to be a pop-up window, it can merely be an application that is taking a long time to start. I have known systems that initiate a lot of apps on startup taking focus away multiple times from a password entry attempt. This is SO important in this day and age where every tool/site asks you for a password.
Windows has the idea of pop-ups to tell a user what is happening, it is rather useless when that pop up or other app takes focus and you find half of what you've typed has gone nowhere. You may think this is trivial but in the security world this is a BIG DEAL. Being able to pop up another window and steal a users' password input? Great for the thief but from the security expert's perspective Windows is rubbish.
There should be a choice that protects the user window selected from being superceded by any pop-up. On superior systems that honoured the users' window selection there exists an alternative, a notification window where such pop-ups could be captured or the output diverted.
I'd love ReactOS to do certain things better than Windows, this is one that I do not expect to make beta or live but I'd like it to lodge in the consciousness of the ReactOS cloud as one of those potential improvements of ReactOS over Windows that could make ReactOS more acceptable in the real world.